A birthday like no other!

 I celebrated my 52nd birthday this past week.   I was looking forward to some time off of work.  I had plans for each day and it was going to be, well not epic; but a good day and week.  Little did I know what was coming my way

I started my birthday week on Monday and everything went well.  I roamed a bit and ran some errands.  I was busy but had a fabulous day!   I hit up some thrift stores, roamed through Hobby Lobby, took myself to lunch.  It was great!

Tuesday was my birthday and it was the day that I had planned to go visit an old Civil War Fort with my nephew.  (Jason had to work.). I woke up with a smile on my face ready to enjoy another day off of work and for our adventure.   We went to Fort Duncan. And explored the ruins of this old fort.  The weather was perfect for us.  

We even took a walk down the remnants of an old road and explored an abandoned household 

And we went to the graveyard and drove by a house that was reportedly used as a house of ill repute.

It was a perfect birthday morning.  And then it went belly up.my phone started blowing ip with texts from my coworkers.  Our team had been called into a meeting, the whole team…at the same time.  In a call center environment, it is rare and HUGE if they pull everyone off the phones at the same time.  Yet they did.  I was still out and about when the meeting went down.   My coworkers  kept me apprised.

‘Our team is disbanding as of December 31’

‘They didn’t find new teams for us’

‘We have all lost our jobs’

‘Not performance based, reduction in workforce based on business needs’

‘Possibly have one position that we can all apply for’

I was luckily heading home by that point.  But I held out some slim hope that maybe they were getting rid of everyone…everyone but me that is.  Yeah, I know how crazy and conceited that sounds now that I’m typing it. But that is where my thought was at that point.   

Within an hour I had my phone call.   I was too being laid off…blah blah blah (that is code for all the legalese stuff).  

I spent the rest of my birthday revamping my resume and getting password resets on websites such as indeed…and updating those sites to my current  address and information.   I sat and panicked about money and worked through figured in my head…constantly.

I was still off on Wednesday and I spent some time shopping for a few clothes at goodwill, I had gained weight and have/had no dress pants that fit and I realize that interviews will be in my future.  So I bought pair or two of versatile dress pants.  Mostly Wednesday was just me assimilating the information that for the first time in my life I was given the boot from a job.   For the first time in my adult life I would be unemployed  yes there were tears.

Thursday I was back at work….starting to work off my last 2.5 weeks of employment.

This would most decidedly be the worst birthday gift I ever got.  Not one I recommend at all.   I have started to apply at jobs already.  I am also preparing mentally to be out of work for a bit, hopefully not long….but the odds of me being able to start somewhere on January 1 is a long shot.  But I am prepared. I am making plans for those days off…vowing to job hunt at least 30-60 minutes a day. MINIMUM!   I also have some thoughts to finally be able to finish the picture digitizing project …even adding in my personal photos.   I have some graveyards that I want to visit.  I have some purging that I want to do.  I also want to try to spend some time away from the house daily to prepare the dog for  the possibility that I will not be by her side 24-7 in case I get an office position and have to give up the work from home gig.  Hello long winter walks….as money will be tight and what else could I do for free?

Shocked, stressed, worried.  But praying for a miracle of a job that I love and that pays what I need!

365 Pictures day 32 to 40

 I am still charging full steam ahead with my picture of the day project.  

Day 32       11.28.24 

    Yes, Breakfast was indeed pumpkin roll!

Day 33       11.29.24

    I managed to hit up the Bent and Dent Grocery store and picked up some great deals!

Day 34       11.30.24

    Jason ended up with a stomach bug......this was what he did all weekend.

    

Day 35        12.1.24 

    I finally got my test tube for my DNA test!  

    

Day 36         12.2.24

    This dog is so spoiled!  She does enjoy her Bully sticks!

Day 37         12.3.2024

    I tried my hand at making butter mints.  They taste good but look horrible!

Day 38   12.4.2024

    Zoey loves when we pull out the advent calendar.  Yes, you can indeed buy an advent calendar for your dog.  And yes, we did buy one! (we had one last year too)

Day 39        12.5.24

        We had a dusting of snow.   Not enough to even measure, but just enough to leave some white here and there.

    

Day 40          12.6.24

    I made a honey bun cake.  Seriously, one of the best tasting cakes ever. 

Time Is Flying By

 The last week or two have flown by in a blur!  It feels like it is still before Thanksgiving, yet here I find myself a week after Turkey day!   How can life move by so fast?

Thanksgiving was a good day.  We spent it with my brother and his family.  It is crazy how adult my niece and nephews are becoming (ok, have become as only one is still in high school).  The day after Thanksgiving, Jason woke up and was like, "I think I ate too much last night my stomach is flipping".   He had to work, so he headed out the door.  I spent the day working on some things around the house and I also went to the Bent and Dent Grocery store.  Yes, I got a lot of bargains!  It takes a bit longer to shop because I do check the expiration date on pretty much everything.  However, the deals are incredible.  I texted Jason at lunch to ask how he was feeling and his response came back as not good.   Apparently the stomach pains had escalated as he drove to work and by the time he was at work he was in full out stomach flu mode.  Throwing up, extreme exhaustion chills....  His boss was like "just go home dude"  and Jason said "I don't think I can even drive myself at this point."  so Jason curled up on the floor and slept all morning in their office/'warehouse and the boss went out and picked him up some medicine.  He stopped throwing up at about 1 and felt safe enough to drive home by about 3.  He arrived home at 4 and told me he was going to try to 'stay awake' so that it didn't mess up his sleep that night.   Yeah, that didn't happen.  He was over there snoring within minutes.  He slept all afternoon and evening.  He slept the whole night through and he dozed in and out all day Saturday.   By Sunday, his stomach was fine but he was just still so tired....so we spent another day just resting at the house.   We both went back to work on Monday.   He was thankfully just a bit more tired than normal...and he is now feeling back to 100%.

 I had a day off this past week.  I was super busy though.  Literally, I was on the go from the time Jason walked out the door to go to work until the moment Jason got home.  I had been tiptoeing around the house while Jason slept all weekend and stuck close in case he needed me.  Therefore, all my weekend errands and chores were pushed off until Tuesday. (I knew I was off on Tuesday so therefore I had made that decision on the weekend).   My food that day was a bit higher in calories, but I was ok with it. 

For the month of December I would love to lose weight. However, my goal is to maintain my weight.  I have a lot going on in the month.  Including a ton of time off...well hopefully.   Time off is more difficult for me eating sometimes.  Stepping out of the routine is difficult in terms of eating!  But that's ok.   December also brings Christmas...so more baked goods.  It also brings about my birthday and I do plan on making my filled cookie, the one that my mom made for me each year.   I picked up the tradition the first year mom was in a nursing home and I plan on continuing even though mom has passed.  The only difference is that I won't be able to share any with mom.     The cookies are a once a year treat for me.  Or should I say a once a year bake for me.  The last two years that I have made them, I have eaten a few and then I package them up into individual portions and freeze them.  I pull one out here and there and indulge.  Last year there were months that I didn't touch any...but then months where I had one a week!   But, I will say that I ate my last 2023 birthday cookie in October of 2024.  I plan on doing the same thing this year.  

I am still enthralled with the ancestry thing.  It is quite fascinating really. I flip back and forth on different people.  One day I will be looking at my mom's grandmothers family and the next day be looking at dad's adopted family but the next day I switch to looking at Jason's family.  Keeps it fun and unique.    I did get my test tube for  my DNA test.  I supplied my spit, packaged it up and it has been sent off.  They should have it any day now.    So I'm just in a waiting game for that.   I remain hopeful that we can prove one story of my possible grandmothers right or wrong.   We don't need much to prove it enough for me to be happy.  Basically, if I have a bunch of cousins or close family pop up in the UK then we know the story about the RAF pilot is true meaning the person that we are pretty sure is my grandmother is most likely the grandmother (even though she denied it to her dying day) and in that case we know that the other story is false.   (even though she perpetuated the story that she was until her dying day).  Best case scenario, enough key players in the story have done a DNA test at some point out of curiosity and I get straight answer.  But who knows.  I started doing the family tree just so that when I get my DNA results back that I can have a basis of family line so that I can quickly place any matches.   And who knew that it would be so fun!

Work has been stressful.  I typically plan my vacation out and save a few days to roll into the new year.  Up until a few weeks ago they couldn't confirm that we were allowed to roll days this year.  So I had to frantically start scheduling PTO days into a calendar that was already full.  This meant that I kept getting denied my requests.   I got everything but 3 days scheduled.  Luckily they finally announced that we could roll over time.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  But it was short lived.  I went into work after Thanksgiving and they had retracted 3 of my requests and told me that I was out of time....in essence shorting me about 6 days of time.  I was (and am) panicked!  I supplied a breakdown of my days....including screen shots from my paycheck that showed PTO balances and screenshots from our time keeping system to show that the days that I had recorded and planned actually matched those two records.  Then I had an email from my manager telling me that I had taken a week of PTO in February (uhhh my mother died..that was bereavement and not PTO...I forwarded them the obituary (weirdly enough I got PAID for bereavement and nothing was deducted from my PTO balance....but now they are saying that it was PTO).  So now I am waiting for them to right the wrong and give me my time and days off back.  Yes, I'm stressed.  Days off are like money!  I earned them!

So that is the scoop from here.....